Stretching a Fourth of July Holiday Into a Five-Day Weekend

Neil Bender finished all of this week's business meetings early yesterday morning. Then he went home to the West Village, put on khaki shorts and sunglasses, stuffed his computer in a briefcase and headed off to the Hamptons. His wife, Marika Marko, had ended her work week even earlier, on Monday evening. They were on the jitney by 1 P.M.

Mr. Bender, the president of an interactive multimedia business, said he would telecommute from Sag Harbor if necessary and that a co-worker could do the same from the Jersey Shore.

As the couple stood waiting for the bus on East 41st Street, Ms. Marko, a sales executive with a corporate travel agency, said: "There was absolutely no need to stay in. Wednesday is going to be a very slow day. People will start taking off at noon."

The calendar may have said July 2 yesterday but across the New York metropolitan area, the Fourth of July holiday was already getting under way.

In the capital of gimme-a-break, where vacation days are a currency as real as dollars and yen, this is a week when two plus two equals five. With the Fourth falling on a Thursday, the city's worn and weary quickly calculated that taking Wednesday and Friday off meant a vacation as long as a work week. By yesterday afternoon, many were already on their way.

"You take two days and you get five," said a woman who like many others was too bashful about the early escape to give her name. She said she and her husband, an investment banker, had taken the rest of the week off and were planning to attend several benefits on Long Island.

A 35-year-old orthopedist in midtown, also shy about his short week, said he had packed in his patients to clear the way for a week of partying.

"I just crunched everybody into the mornings," he said. "I took the rest of the day off. I took tomorrow off. I took Friday off and possibly Monday."

The vacation migration actually began late last week. Traffic leaving the city has created a series of frustrating afternoon rush hours that seem to start earlier and earlier each day and are not expected to let up until Thursday, said Bob Williams, a spokesman for Shadow Traffic, which broadcasts reports of metropolitan area road conditions.

"Traditionally, the week of the Fourth of July is a very popular time for vacations, and with the Fourth of July falling on a Thursday this year, the traffic flow has been anything but ordinary," Mr. Williams said. "With many people leaving as early as last Thursday and Friday and headed to the island or to wherever they are going, we have had some very heavy rush hours."

For some, the city's downshift to holiday speed was a welcome break. On Monday, Jeaneen Belle answered more than 100 telephone calls at her job as a receptionist at a midtown employment agency. She said she answered 30 calls yesterday and expected next to none today.

"Monday was very hectic and then all of a sudden it got quiet," she said.

Of course not everyone could afford to head for the beach, and for some of those left behind the slowdown was frustrating.

Mamdul Ramadan sells bagels and doughnuts from a cart at the corner of Avenue of the Americas and 46th Street, and by midday he usually has fewer than 10 items left. At 12:30 P.M. yesterday he still had dozens of doughnuts and crullers, rolls and muffins left over. "You see there is a lot of stuff," he said. "It has been very slow."

As everyday commuters made for weekend getaways, yellow cabs were left in long lines at taxi stands across the city and car service drivers waited -- some for hours at a stretch -- for radio calls that mostly did not come.

"We had like 30 percent business today out of the usual," said a dispatcher with Galil Car and Limo Service on the East Side.

Amtrak has been adding extra cars all week to its trains on northeast corridor routes to accommodate the large number of holiday travelers. Four extra trains will be added to Amtrak's Northeast Direct service between Boston and Washington on Wednesday and two extra trains on Sunday. The Hampton jitney has also added extra buses.

For some escapees, vacationing seems a skill that needs practice. Kevin J. Leichter, 35, a lawyer from Los Angeles, was on his way to visit his mother in Westhampton with his wife, Tamara, and 2-year-old daughter, Anna.

In addition to Anna, a stroller and a carseat, the Leichters were lugging four suitcases, two packed with documents relating to a rights case that Mr. Leichter is litigating.

"I have already sent four faxes today," Mr. Leichter said, opening one case to pull out his business card. "So I'm not really sure it's a day off."

The fortuitous falling of the Fourth was not enough to guarantee everyone a long holiday. Some needed luck. "My brother runs my department," admitted Chris Coleman, 22, explaining how he got two extra days away from his job with a securities firm. "I'm going today to Montauk, to get in some early surfing before the crowd comes out."

Beverly Ianucci, who works in the temp department of a Fifth Avenue employment agency, also had the benefit of a kind supervisor. "I was going to have to work for part of the day on Friday," she said. "But my boss is going to play golf, so he felt bad making me come in."

"Companies are silly if they want to bring their employees in on Friday, unless it's something major to the world economy," she said. "It's not our fault the Fourth falls on a Thursday."